Deputy: Dog's aggression caused fatal shooting
NORTH CAROLINA -- A Buncombe County deputy said he had no choice but to shoot a dog because of its aggression toward his young children and disputed parts of the dog owner’s account of the fatal encounter.
Jason Honeycutt, a 17-year veteran of the Sheriff’s Office, and his employer have faced intense criticism in the past week after a Durham man claimed the officer used excessive force in shooting his dog on a hiking trail in McDowell County.
Honeycutt said one of Scott Schulman’s three dogs behaved more aggressively than what Schulman told the Citizen-Times in an article last week.
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| The black dog is Nellie, who was shot and killed by an off-duty Buncombe County deputy on Feb. 10. |
“I hate it had to happen,” Honeycutt said. “I didn’t like doing what I had to do, but the only other option for me was to wait and see what the dog did before I took any action whatsoever. And that’s not an option for me.”
Honeycutt’s story begins similarly to Schulman’s in that it started with a hike Feb. 10 at Catawba Falls, a place the deputy commonly visits in Pisgah National Forest.
Honeycutt went out that Sunday afternoon with his 8- and 6-year-old sons. At one point during the hike, Honeycutt and his boys veered off the trail and into a creek. They were admiring the falls above them when Honeycutt said he first spotted a black dog running back and forth on a ridge about 50-70 yards away without a leash.
The dog was Nellie, Schulman’s 45-pound border collie mix.
Less than five minutes later, the Honeycutts started toward the main trail. The deputy said he heard barking dogs as soon as he stepped onto the trail and told his kids to stay on a bank while he determined if the dogs were friendly.
He initially encountered two dogs, one he described as a small dog weighing less than 10 pounds, and then one he concluded was a bulldog mix of about 35 pounds. The smaller dog approached him first, as he stood in an area between a fallen tree on his left and a boulder on his right.
“As the second dog runs up, it kind of peeks around the tree and sees my sons standing on the bank,” Honeycutt said. “They had both been barking, but then the bulldog starts to growl. So, I kick it. I kicked it in the left side of its jaw.”
He said the dog yelped, and he thought it ran away.
“Well, as soon as I kick that dog, the black one, whom I had not seen yet because I was paying attention to these two dogs, it runs around me on my right hand side, flanks me and gets in behind me,” Honeycutt said.
The situation quickly escalated, as Honeycutt’s children stood about five or six feet behind him on the bank. The bulldog returned and all three dogs were barking. Honeycutt said Nellie was at a 45-degree angle on his right side. He said the black dog was staring at his sons, growling and barking with his hair standing on his back and his body lowered to the ground.
Honeycutt said an owner was nowhere in sight, but he yelled, “Mister, you need to come get your dogs!”
As the dog continued its aggressive behavior, Honeycutt kept yelling for the owner and reached for his handgun.
“So, as I go to pull my weapon out, I holler ‘Mister, you need to come get your damn dogs before I have to kill them,” he said. “So, about the time I got that statement out of my mouth, the dog advances on my sons.”
Honeycutt fired at the dog and missed. He said Nellie continued toward his children and he shot him in the shoulder, about five feet away from the children.
“I had no other option,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it.”
[You are a 17-year veteran of the police force and you miss shooting your target from five feet away??? Clearly he can't hit the broad side of the barn. He could have shot his own kid by mistake if he's this bad with a firearm. And wouldn't most dogs be startled by the sound of gunfire so close to them that they would run off?
I'm not saying these dogs weren't being a danger, but I'm a bit perturbed by his version of the story.]
Honeycutt said he never saw Schulman before the shooting but the Durham man approached him afterward. Schulman asked Honeycutt, “Did you just shoot my dog?”
“You’re damn right I just shot your dog,” Honeycutt responded. “Your dog was trying to attack my sons. And why are your dogs not on a leash to begin with?”
“Forgive me for being a little emotional. I hope people can understand that my 8-year-old and my 6-year-old, who are 105 pounds and 45 pounds, have just had to watch their dad shoot someone’s pet. And I was a little emotional about the fact that I had to use my duty weapon and discharge my duty weapon in Pisgah National Forest to kill someone’s pet. That could’ve been avoided if he had it on a leash to begin with.”
Shalonda Guy, acting district ranger with the Grandfather Ranger District, said it’s mixed jurisdiction at Catawba Falls and she doesn’t know what the leash laws are or who has jurisdiction.
McDowell County doesn’t have a leash law, the Sheriff’s Office said. A sign at Catawba Falls urges people to keep their pets under physical restraint at all times. Schulman said the dogs were not on a leash because he had fallen in a creek and needed assistance.
Honeycutt and at least one other person who encountered Schulman‘s dogs said they never saw them on a leash.
Honeycutt called authorities and helped carry Schulman’s dog from the scene of the shooting.
Employer defends Honeycutt
Sheriff Van Duncan said he reviewed the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office case notes and statements from Schulman and Honeycutt. Duncan also talked to Schulman about the incident and expressed his condolences for the man’s loss.
Honeycutt has not been charged in the incident, and the McDowell County Sheriff’s Office does not plan to file any charges. Capt. Ricky Crisp said the investigation has shown Honeycutt was trying to protect his children.
“I would’ve fired any officer that would’ve shot a dog that ran up to him just kind of barking, wagging his tail,” he said, referring to a comment Schulman made to the Citizen-Times. “But that's not what happened here.”
Duncan said he spent three to four hours talking on the phone last week with people about the incident, defending his officer. He also said he read the online comments, criticizing Honeycutt, some of which called for him to be terminated.
Honeycutt has four dogs and has been involved in canine training, Duncan said.
“He has a pretty good idea of when a dog is bluffing and barking and when, you know, one is probably going to bite,” Duncan said. “We feel like he has good judgment and have not had a problem with that, and no disciplinary action as far as excessive use of force or anything like that and some of the things that have been alleged in this particular situation.”
People have also wondered why Honeycutt would take a gun hiking. Lt. Randy Sorrells said deputies can make an arrest anywhere in the state if a felony is committed in their presence.
“We carry our guns off-duty because the only time you’re not allowed to carry your gun is if you’re imbibing alcohol or if you’re impaired,” Sorrells said. “We carry that because we have the duty to protect people 24-7. That never goes away.”
Dog owner's version
Schulman said he will never forget the horrific incident, which happened on a Sunday afternoon. He went hiking with his 25-year-old son and three dogs at Catawba Falls.
They were crossing over a lagoon on a partially submerged tree trunk to start a trek back down the trail, when Schulman stumbled and fell into the water. His left foot was pinned beneath a rock, and Schulman’s son and a couple helped pull him out of the water after a couple of minutes.
Meanwhile, the dogs continued on the trail. Schulman heard them barking and tried to catch up. He said he turned a corner and saw Honeycutt with a gun pointed at Nellie, who was barking and wagging her tail.
“I hear two or three pops, and I see Nellie roll over and hit the ground,” Schulman said. “I was in shock. I couldn’t believe what I saw. I just said, ‘Did you shoot my dog?’ He said something like, ‘You’re damn right I shot your dog.’
“I was just speechless. I tended to Nellie while she died. It was a nightmare.”
Schulman said once he composed himself he asked Honeycutt if his children were OK. The officer told him the children were scared but unharmed.
Schulman said he provided a statement to authorities, and a couple who witnessed the incident did the same. That couple encountered the frolicking dogs before the shooting, and they barked at them but weren’t aggressive in any way, Schulman said.
“My main concern is making the citizens aware that this incident occurred because, again, I believe this response by this individual was excessive and disproportionate,” he said. “And I don't want anybody else to have to experience something like this.”
(Citizen Times - Mar. 2, 2013)
